1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner with a seat air conditioning unit capable of blowing cool air from surfaces of a seat cushion and a seat back of a vehicle seat on which a passenger (user) sits. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cooling capacity control of air blown from the seat cushion and a cooling capacity control of air blown from the seat back. Here, the cooling capacity includes at least one of an air temperature and an air amount blown from the seat cushion or the seat back of the vehicle seat.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in FIG. 14, in a seat air conditioning unit for a vehicle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,706 (corresponding to JP-A-2000-152849), a vehicle seat includes a seat cushion J1 for receiving the hip portion and the thigh portion of a passenger sitting on the vehicle seat, a seat back J2 for receiving the waist portion and the shoulder portion of the passenger, and a common blower J3. The air conditioning unit is constructed so that cool air blown by the common blower J3 is distributed to the seat cushion J1 and the seat back J2.
However, when the passenger sits on the vehicle seat (J1, J2) for a long time while this seat air conditioning unit operates during a cooling operation of a passenger compartment, the waist portion of the passenger maybe excessively cooled, and the passenger may have lumbago. Further, when the passenger sits on the vehicle seat (J1, J2), many of air outlets of the seat cushion J1 are closed by the hip portion (buttock portion) and the thigh portion of the passenger. Therefore, cooling capacity of air blown from the seat back J2 is increased. In this case, the waist portion of the passenger may be excessively cooled.